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Graduate Regulations

Degree Candidacy

Master's/Specialist Degree Candidacy

Students whose progress has brought them to within 15 credit hours of program completion are formally accorded status as Degree Candidates. The designation, commonly employed by graduate level institutions, is useful in describing graduate student status to employers, prospective employers, certification and licensing agencies, and graduate institutions considering students for admission to study beyond the Master’s or Specialist degree level. The status indicates simply that the award of the degree is imminent.

Candidacy also indicates that the Registrar is conducting the appropriate final reviews to enable a formal recommendation to the Vice President of the Graduate College that the appropriate degree be recommended to the President and Trustees of the University for issuance at a specific time and place.

Admission to candidacy does not imply the degree will be awarded; it implies only that the student has the capacity and capability to successfully and satisfactorily complete the final 15 hours of instruction and is expected to do so.

Students terminating enrollment within 15 hours of degree completion cease, at the time of termination, to be Degree Candidates.